Yours
by Digibear
Summary: In the midst of everything, just remember who is really on your side. Remember who you're fighting for. Sakura/Itachi. AU in which Itachi is not deceased and Sasuke is still with Orochimaru.
1. Mission: Failed

Note: Hello, everyone! So I decided to publish this _Naruto_ story that I had saved in my computer for ages. I picked it back up, and after reading it I decided to continue with it. Enjoy!

* * *

I.

* * *

Everything went wrong.

Ever since their formation broke, nothing fell into place.

Sakura threw herself against a tree and gritted her teeth. Kunai in hand, she took one shallow breath before darting from her hiding position to chuck it ten yards away. After hearing a strangled sound and a thump, she confirmed that her target hit the ground and leapt in the other direction. Her chakra reserves were dangerously low, so at this point all she had to fuel her was sheer willpower. Swinging her head around to scan the area, she flew through the dense foliage, desperate to find anyone else from her team still breathing. After a few agonizing moments, she finally spotted a familiar, Konoha-green flak jacket. Rushing to her fallen comrade that was lying against the trunk of a tree, she landed on the ground next to him and knelt down to his level. Gingerly placing her ear against his chest, she heard a miniscule heartbeat.

That was all she needed.

Sakura gripped his jacket and shook him lightly, whispering harshly in his ear, "Shikamaru, come on. Don't give up yet!"

The kunoichi heard a stinted groan coming from the jonin's throat, and she immediately started to tend to his wounds. Just concentrating chakra at her fingertips made her head throb, but Sakura needed someone else to be alive.

She knew she wouldn't make it back to Konoha at this point.

After the longest minute of her life passed, Sakura felt Shikamaru shift under her hands. Using a hand to push himself up in a sitting position, he nodded towards his healer and thanked her.

Sakura just nodded in return and spoke gravely, "Everyone's dead."

The man shut his eyes and covered them with his hand.

Their mission was a B-rank mission that Sakura believed to be borderline C; all that had to be accomplished was a simple combat with the approaching ninja posing as a threat to Konoha. Looking ruefully at the clear blue sky above, Sakura remembered what had taken place the better part of that day.

"_Sakura!"_

_The girl addressed looked over her shoulder, and she turned around fully to acknowledge who called her, "Naruto, what's up?" _

_He put his hands on his knees while he took short gasping breaths. Looking up with one shut eye, he said, "You're really hard to find when Tsunade-sama asks me to look for you."_

_One of Sakura's eyebrows shot up out of curiosity, "Tsunade-shishou?"_

_The boy straightened up and wiped his nose with his thumb. "Yeah. I think she needs you for a mission."_

_Sakura sighed, "Right now?"_

_Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Apparently she wants you as soon as possible. She told me to come get you and drag you to her office even if you were…" A very prominent blush invaded his cheeks, making Sakura curious and angered at the same time. _

_She crossed her arms in frustration; she was supposed to meet up with Ino for lunch in a couple minutes. Sakura was sure her bleach-blonde friend would have her hide when she figured out that Sakura ditched her for a mission. With more frustration in her voice than she intended, Sakura snapped at Naruto, "What did she say?"_

_It looked like the boy was about to explode. Whatever he was hiding, Sakura had a feeling she wasn't going to like it. _

_The boy made a face before shouting, "She told me to come get you and drag you to her office even if you were showering!"_

_There was a pregnant pause in there somewhere, before Sakura smacked Naruto face first into the dirt road. The onlookers gave them weird stares as Sakura haughtily walked past the beaten shinobi without any second thoughts. _

Tsunade-shishou, I swear…_ Sakura contemplated how angry she wanted to be with her sensei, considering everything that has happened that morning. First she had to abruptly cancel lunch with Ino without even getting to tell her, then she almost gets sexually harassed by Naruto for repeating something that Tsunade herself said, and then she has to go on a mission without anything solid in her stomach. _

_What a day, and it was only 11 in the morning._

_Sakura eventually made her way to the Hokage tower, rudely greeting anyone that acknowledged her. She felt bad immediately afterwards, though. They didn't deserve to be treated that way even though she was having a bad day._

_Finally, she rapped on the Hokage's office, and she was ushered in so fast that she stumbled on her way in. _

_When she looked up, four pairs of eyes were looking at her; one pair she knew, but the other three…_

_Sakura looked at the three newcomers before looking at the jonin, "Shikamaru, what…?"_

_Tsunade tilted her head to the side to see if Sakura was behind the people standing in front of her. When she saw the look of confusion on the kunoichi's face, she spoke loud enough for her to hear, "Hmm, so Naruto was actually able to find you."_

_Sakura glared as she walked to the line of shinobi that formed in front of Tsunade's desk. "He told me what you said," she replied with a hint of anger. _

_Tsunade just gave her a weird look. "…You weren't actually showering, were you?"_

"_NO!" Sakura huffed and looked away, thin lines of pink on both her cheeks. After giving it a thought, she was a little grateful that she really wasn't showering when Naruto found her. That would've been the day that Konoha's Number One Prankster lost his eyesight. _

_Settling down, Sakura finally questioned Tsunade why she summoned her. _

_The Hokage answered, "I have a mission for you, but this is more of a lesson than an actual mission." She pointed at the three chuunin standing between Shikamaru and Sakura. "These three will accompany you and watch your every move. The mission is to intercept the hunter nin that are making their way towards Konoha, so it should be fairly basic. We don't know what village they're from, though; apparently they have rid themselves of their hitai-ate."_

_All five shinobi gave Tsunade weird looks, but the Hokage just shrugged. Continuing with the report, she turned to Shikamaru and spoke with a stern voice, "Stay in the formation I specifically showed you, and you shouldn't run into any problems."_

"_Yes, Tsunade-sama."_

_The Hokage then turned to Sakura and with the same tone, she said, "Sakura, the reason I brought you and Shikamaru on this mission together was that you two are the top leaders of your generation. I expect this mission to go smoothly."_

It had to have been at least an hour, two hour mission.

Until a very lethal and oddly undetectable tag bomb annihilated their entire formation.

It all happened so fast: in one second they were closing in on their target and the next they were caught in a huge explosion. All five of the team members flew in different directions, all suffering from the short distance they had from the tag that was triggered when they stepped on the branch it was placed on.

Sakura was sure she rocketed a good fifty feet away from the rest of the group, her head colliding with the base of a tree. She was amazed that the impact didn't knock her out senseless, but wasn't surprised in the least that it hurt like hell. Grabbing her head with both hands, she choked out a short sob before healing it as fast as she could. The incessant ringing still invaded her ears, but she couldn't give up yet. She had to reunite with the rest of her team before it was too late.

Sakura ran back as fast as she could run, bringing down numerous ninja that got in her way. All the while, she kept praying that everyone on her team was still alive and fighting. But, as if speaking too soon, she already saw one of the rookie chuunin that were with her speared against a tree, blood running down his body mercilessly. She almost thought about rushing over to him to heal him, but she could already tell from a mile away that there was no hope left for him. His skin was pale and his eyes were slightly open, irises a solid color of death gray.

She had high hopes for that boy, too.

Now with a burning desire to punish the enemy for killing him, Sakura leapt onto a branch that three hunter nin occupied. With a harsh battle cry, she concentrated a load of chakra into her fist and punched the nearest one right in the stomach. Blood gushed out of his mouth and he shot back into a tree trunk, catching the ninja behind him in the process. Sakura then whipped her head around to the last shinobi and ran towards him at blinding speed. Before he could react, her fist connected with his chin and he rocketed into the air.

Sakura didn't even stay long enough to watch him hit the ground, senseless.

After what seemed like an hour of pure fighting, Sakura finally found Shikamaru. During that time, she found the two other chuunin that came along with them on the mission. One of them was strewn onto the ground, limbs in unnatural positions; the other was just lying deathly still on the forest floor. Sakura felt tears after seeing both of them, mostly because she was so mad at herself for allowing their deaths to happen. If she had seen the tag bomb beforehand, they all would've been on their way home now.

But life didn't seem to work with Sakura like she wanted.

And it wasn't about to start.

Shikamaru gripped Sakura's shoulder, immediately halting her memory of the mission. She was about to ask him what was wrong, but that was when she felt it.

It seemed like an army of shinobi was coming their way, judging by the massive amount of chakra that rocked her to the core. She shivered at the onslaught of dark intention that she felt, and she looked at Shikamaru with wide eyes.

"Get out of here."

They both said it at once, and Sakura shook her head. Hastily, she tried to convince him, "No, you go. I healed you; you have enough chakra to make it back."

He narrowed his eyes, not satisfied with the situation at all. "We can fight them off together—"

"—Shikamaru, listen! If we fight them in the state we're in right now, we're _both _going to die. I can hold them off long enough for you to escape."

He hesitated before standing up. As Sakura followed suit, Shikamaru gave her a cold stare. He whispered, "You sure about this?"

He only got a nod in response, and he rubbed the back of his spiky hair in exasperation. "So troublesome… Okay, I'll head back and inform Tsunade-sama about the situation as soon as I get there."

Sakura gave him a reassuring smile and made a fist, "Go. I can handle them."

He gave her one more knowing glance before sprinting off in the direction of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Sakura watched him go before slowly turning around.

* * *

She could only hope for a miracle.

They already made their circle around her, all one hundred of them. Weapons clinked against their metallic chest plates, and their masks concealed everything but their steeled eyes.

Sakura steadied her breathing, calculating a thousand different ways to approach the situation. If she could take the diplomatic route and negotiate something with them, she would in a heartbeat. Sakura knew her sharp wit could easily win them over and somehow make an agreement with them.

Oh, who was she kidding?

No amount of small talk could convince these ninja out of a battle, especially when they reeked of so much lust for blood. The atmosphere was so dense with it that it made Sakura gag. In a moment of distraction, she silently prayed that Shikamaru didn't have anyone on his trail and that he would make the long trek back to Konoha safely. And with a hint of bitterness, her afterthought was that at least one of them had to survive this counterattack. Her eyes darted around, watching each shinobi's move. In the still moments before her impending death, Sakura could feel her chakra slowly seeping back in. If she could stall them a little while longer, her chakra levels would be at a level that she could work efficiently with.

But as luck would have it, one of the shinobi suddenly took a step toward her. Out of nervousness, Sakura slowly took one step back, a kunai clutched in her white knuckles. All hopes of coming out of this battle alive were thrown out the window.

This was it.

He chuckled darkly before he called out, "Any last words, kunoichi?"

A true death worthy of a ninja.

Sakura brought her kunai in front of her face and crouched into a fighting stance. Her last words rang through the trees, "I'm ready when you are."

And that was the start of what Sakura would always consider her defining moment.

* * *

At last, the one hundredth shinobi fell onto his knees, falling face first into the ground with a resonating thud.

Sakura's mouth hung open freely as she staggered to the nearest solid object she could rest against, both arms dripping with crimson. Judging by the lightheadedness, she concluded with contempt that she acquired a concussion somewhere in the fight. Her head was pulsing and the strain on her body proved to be too much; it was as if every muscle had been pushed a hundred miles past its limit. To make matters worse, her vision was swirling so fast it almost looked like she was looking at the forest through a kaleidoscope. After a few agonizing steps, her shoulder connected with the base of a tree, and she slipped out of consciousness even before her knees gave out and her body dropped to the ground in a heap of limbs.

* * *

Exhaustion.

That was the first word that emerged in Sakura's thoughts after she felt the faintest hint of chakra in her body. Even though it proved to be too much work just to open her eyes, she tried anyway. Shikamaru should have been close to if not in Konoha by now, and he would surely go straight to Tsunade's office to tell her about what had happened during the mission, albeit not without a hint of embarrassment and disappointment. And, after he should've mentioned Sakura's whereabouts, Tsunade should've sent a retrieval team, which should be on its way now.

_How embarrassing…_ Sakura felt a stab of worthlessness as she struggled to merely open her eyes. If she could gain enough chakra back in her body, she could make it back to Konoha herself. At least this could save her some face, compensating for her failure to make it back with Shikamaru in the first place. And maybe Tsunade would cut down on the lecture time since she would surely sit her down and howl down her throat stuff like 'why the hell did you let your chakra levels sink so low' and 'what did I tell you about obeying all my orders, which included coming back alive.' And what's worse: Sakura probably wouldn't even get to inform her shishou that she singlehandedly took down a hundred shinobi _with_ her chakra levels where they were because of Tsunade's unwillingness to even listen to anything her student said during a lecture.

Not wanting to sit through such torture, the young woman creased her eyebrows and gritted her teeth, fighting to get her vision back. After several failed attempts, frustration started to overcome the kunoichi , and in one final flash of sheer tenacity Sakura forced her eyelids to shoot straight up.

And the first thing she saw was a pair of blood red eyes.

* * *

Note: How do you like it? Do you want to know what happens next? Keep it or scrap it? Let me know! Thanks for reading!


	2. An Invitation

Note: Thanks to all the people that encouraged me to continue this! This chapter's a transition chapter, so hang on tight!

* * *

II.

* * *

"Sas…"

Twin red pools of swirling blood held her gaze. Around them, jet-black strands of hair swayed softly in the wind. Sakura did everything she could to keep her eyes from closing, fearful that if she opened them again, he would be gone. However, it was getting impossible to hold them up, and she slowly gave in to the darkness. A soft breath escaped her as she slipped back into unconsciousness, "It's really you…"

The girl leaned to the right, and if it wasn't for the arm that caught her she would've hit the ground with a thud. The figure then scooped her up in both arms and poised to jump into the nearest tree. As if on cue, his companion's gravelly voice interrupted his jump.

"Itachi, did you hear her?"

The Uchiha stood back up straight and gave him a sidelong glance. A long moment of silence ensued before he whispered, "I am not deaf, Kisame."

A brusque cackle escaped the shark-man, and he shook his head. "Far from it."

That was the last exchange before the two figures took off into the trees.

* * *

Red.

She was seeing red a lot recently, and not just the expression.

Red on the chuunin she led to death.

Red on the ground and the trees after she defeated one hundred shinobi by herself.

Red pools of death when she woke up for the first time.

Red gates the second time—

_Red gates?_

As Sakura finally came to, she realized that she was staring straight at the red gates of Konoha. She gasped and put her hands behind her to hold her up, but her fingers only found air. Before she could react, Sakura hit the ground with a thud, and she stared at the branch she was sitting on not too long ago with a scowl. After the adrenaline from the fall gave way to pain, the girl let out a low groan and twisted her face into a grimace. "Who would—"

Shooting straight up and completely ignoring the pain that came with it, she reached behind her to heal her hurting backside. Scratch falling from the tree; she wanted to know how she even got there. The last thing she remembered was fighting off the shinobi, but how did she get from there to the village? It couldn't have been done on her own; Shikamaru might have come back to rescue her, but she ordered him to go back to the village. With an afterthought, Sakura was a little irked that it wasn't a retrieval team that came to her aid. Something about that didn't seem right, but she guessed they figured she was dead already. Everything, from the failure of the mission to the panic of how she got back to the village, began to give Sakura a major headache. She had to get back to Tsunade and at least tell her she was okay.

With her thoughts twisted in knots and her limbs pumping with a new kind of adrenaline, Sakura raced into the village and straight to the Hokage tower.

* * *

"Shizune, can you check up on the linguistics department and see if they've advanced on deciphering the scrolls? We don't have time for screwing around."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

As Shizune turned to open the door, a flurry of pink and Konoha green burst through the door, causing the wood to pin the assistant against the wall. "TSUNADE-SAMA! I'm okay! I'm back! He brought me back! Did Shikamaru tell you everything? Everything's fine!"

The Hokage stood up at her desk and peered at Sakura with concern. What she said next got the girl's attention completely. "Sakura, what are you talking about? Shikamaru didn't tell me anything."

Neither Sakura nor Tsunade noticed Shizune slump to the ground with a big bump on her head; Ton-Ton gave her a slight nudge.

* * *

"I'm not telling you _anything_."

"And risk your whole village being destroyed? That's not a smart move coming from you; how ironic."

Shikamaru fidgeted in his chair with the ropes that bounded his hands and feet. The wood from the chair hurt where his arms bent around the back, and he was sure that he had a couple splinters already. He couldn't see a thing through the blindfold fastened around his head, and the voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere, so he couldn't guess where to direct his shadow. Whoever had him held captive was definitely smart.

He had to guess that he had been in captivity for at least eighteen hours, and the only thing he could think of is failing Sakura. She trusted him to get back to the village to send for help, but before he got even three kilometers out, a blow to the head knocked him out cold. The next thing he knew, he was blind and bounded, with no clue of his surroundings.

With a hint of bitterness, he realized that this was what his own captives and victims must feel like.

The current interrogation had been going for at least thirty minutes, and so far, no information had been disclosed. From what he could take from it, they want information about Konoha, but not the information he was expecting.

There came the voice again, sounding soft but strong. It had a deep velvety quality about it, sort of sonorous. "What are Konoha's strongest defensive points?"

With a scoff, Shikamaru replied, "That's funny; wouldn't you want its weakest points?"

Instead of the offending tone it should have had, the voice only had a straightforward one, "I believe I am the one interrogating."

The spiky-haired jonin managed a smirk. "Yeah, yeah. Just sayin'."

The person again responded, the sound of the voice seemingly ringing through the air, "Nara-san, I advise that you only respond with answers."

"Sure, Echo-_san_."

"You don't want to do this, Nara-san. You already failed your teammate once."

Shikamaru stilled on his seat. "Where is she?"

Itachi then leaned down and put his voice up to Shikamaru's ear, since he was standing behind him the entire time. He spoke in a whisper, "I'm the one interrogating, Nara-san. I do not like repeating myself."

Shikamaru gritted his teeth and clenched his hands.

_Shit._

* * *

…_Shit._

Tsunade stared as Sakura's face turned from red to white.

The pink-topped girl blabbered, "Wh-what do you mean? Didn't he come here yesterday to tell you… about… the mission…" When all Sakura was getting was a concerned stare from Tsunade, she trailed off.

_Shit, shit, shit._

While Sakura stood in a stupor, Tsunade sobered up and sat down. Something was definitely wrong, and she had to get to the bottom of it. And having her protégé acting like a fish out of water wasn't helping her at all. "Sakura, I want you to tell me _exactly_ what happened. From what I see, something went wrong and you were forced to send Shikamaru back here. Obviously, he didn't make back, but you did. I need to know every detail of what happened. Now."

The girl was not used to this: she had never failed a mission that went this astray. There had been times where the mission had gone out of control, but she had always pulled through. This time, however, led her straight back to the Hokage tower with nothing to show for it except herself: the only member of the team that made it back. Shikamaru was gone and he could be dead by now, but she had to at least tell Tsunade the whole story. Her eyes stung from unshed tears, but Sakura pushed through. She told Tsunade everything: the tag bomb that separated them, the deaths of the three chuunin, finding Shikamaru barely alive before they were ambushed, sending him back to the village and fighting the shinobi herself, waking up to someone who appeared to be Sasuke, waking up again at the edge of the village.

The Hokage got up during Sakura's retelling and started pacing around her desk. There was a blank look on her face, but Sakura knew she was gravely concerned about something. When Sakura was done, she looked up and straight at Tsunade for an answer.

The Hokage folded her arms and looked at the ground. "We have a problem."

_Well, that's obvious…_ The girl held out her arm. "What are you thinking?"

Tsunade paused before directly her gaze toward Sakura. "…Itachi has Shikamaru."

* * *

For S-class criminals, Shikamaru had to admit that they had good taste in furniture and a place to stay.

The blindfold finally came off, but with a few rules. One, Kisame could knock him out at any time should he try something; two, he could only speak when spoken to (apparently Itachi had had enough of his useless banter). The spiky-haired jonin found out fairly quick that the Uchiha was not one for arguing. He wasn't surprised in the least that those two were the ones holding him in captivity: he would've been killed if it was anyone else. If he knew one thing, it was that these two were efficient. They still needed him, and since he was one of the brightest of the Konoha force, he was unlucky enough to be their target.

Glaring at the neutral colored wall, he fidgeted with the chains around his hands. He was thinking about the conversation he had earlier with Sasuke's older brother, and he was not pleased with himself.

"_I'm the one interrogating, Nara-san. I do not like repeating myself."_

_Shikamaru clenched his hands. "Where is she?"_

_Itachi didn't respond, much to the jonin's chagrin. Rather, he continued with the interrogation, "Do you have any other healers other than the Hokage?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Who?"_

"_Not telling you."_

_A sharp pain appeared at the base of Shikamaru's back, and he bent backwards in his chair. The pain shot up and went straight to his head. He figured someone hit a pressure point, and it hurt like he fell ten stories onto his backbone. _

"_Nara-san, please do not make this hard on yourself."_

"_What do you want with Konoha? And where is Sakura?"_

_All of a sudden, another voice cut through the conversation like a serrated knife, "Sakura? Isn't that the Hokage's protégé?"_

_Shikamaru recognized that voice. It wasn't human, more beast-like. That could only mean—_

Kisame. Then Itachi must be the one I'm talking to. _Shikamaru then addressed the Uchiha directly, "Echo-san, or should I call you _Itachi-san_, where is my teammate?"_

_A pause ensued before Itachi spoke again. This time, his voice sounded like he was right beside him and the reverberations were gone. It seemed like he had him in a genjutsu of some kind and he just cancelled it. "Kisame, I do not appreciate your interruptions."_

_He wasn't upset that he interrupted; he was upset that he blew their cover. _

_The blindfold was then ripped off Shikamaru's head, and he took in the shockingly normal scenery of a kitchen. He was sitting at the head of a table and furrowed his eyebrows at Kisame sitting directly across from him. _

_The shark-man spoke through his ghastly smirk, "Itachi brought your friend back to the village."_

_Shikamaru didn't believe him in the least. "You're lying. If you aren't, you just made a big mistake. She's strong enough to take both of you on, and she's not one to leave her teammates behind."_

_The whooshing sound of a cloak sounded behind him, and he heard the Uchiha's last sentence before a door closed shut. "Kisame is telling the truth."_

_Shikamaru lifted one eyebrow in question, and Kisame bit out a laugh. "I am. And he couldn't be happier."_

_The jonin was completely lost. "Was it something I said?"_

_The crooked smile on Kisame's face couldn't have stretched any further. "Indeed."_

Shikamaru gritted his teeth after his memory cut off. They weren't after him after all, but Sakura instead. They played on her tenacity and pride, and the just might win. If only he hadn't spilled Sakura's weak points to them! He put his head down on his hands that were resting on his knees.

"You're an idiot, Shikamaru. So troublesome."

* * *

"Shishou… I don't understand."

"Sakura, that was not Sasuke that rescued you, you know damn well it wasn't. And if it wasn't Sasuke, Itachi was the one who brought you back to the village. If he did this, he must have Shikamaru. He would have taken you if he didn't. Sakura, I'm sorry, but you can't be part of the rescue team. Go home and stay there, understand?"

If there was one thing that annoyed Sakura more than her rash, blond teammate, it was being told not to be part of the fight. "Going home" hasn't been an option for her since Sasuke left the village when she was twelve years old. Plus, this situation was even worse since it was her fault anyway. She should've detected the tag bomb long before they got close, and if that had happened, she would've been back in Konoha eating lunch with Ino by now. Instead, she has three deaths on her hands and one of Konoha's smartest jonin captured and maybe killed. There was no way she was going to get anyone else involved.

Sakura gave a forced nod and exited the office without another word. Going back to her place, she made sure not to see anyone along the way. Bounding from roofrop to rooftop, using narrow alleys hiding behind stacked cargo boxes, she got to her place without any trouble. In her house, she ran up the stairs and to her room. Quickly rummaging through her drawers and closet, she got a small pack of supplies ready and sat on her bed with a plop. Looking wearily at her hands, she observed that her fingers were shaking from stress.

"Get it together, Sakura," she chided to herself. There were many questions that she had to answer. Why did Tsunade send her home? This was her fault, wasn't it? Itachi sent her back to the village, but why? He must have something planned, for taking someone like her back to the village wasn't something an S-class criminal does just to be nice.

Suddenly, it dawned on her.

_He wants _me… It made sense. Why else would he bring her back? If he wanted Shikamaru, Itachi would've killed her instead of taking his time to bring her all the way back to Konoha. It was awkward, for sure, but nonetheless it made her shiver from head to toe. Feeding on her pride and willingness to not leave anyone behind, he expects her to go and get her teammate.

Well, damn.

Sakura just got an invitation to a party, and she was about to accept it.

* * *

Note: I know, transition chapters are kinda slow, but things will pick up in the next chapter (as will Itachi/Sakura action!). Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!


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